Rick Perry has covered-up and refused to answer ethics complaints involving more than $1 million in potentially illegal expenditures. Perry was named as one of the worst governors in the nation for his history of ethical problems by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
One complaint zeroed in on the $816,000 in campaign dollars, reported in lump sums, for what Perry calls "mansion expenses." For months, Perry reported a flat monthly expense ranging from $3,000 or $6,500 as "mansion expenses" without any supporting detail -- a violation of campaign disclosure laws. The expenses were for Perry’s $10,000-a-month taxpayer funded rental mansion. Additionally, Perry failed to disclose $204,400 in debt on his College Station home from 2007-2009.
TPJ alleges that Perry violated campaign disclosure laws by not itemizing how it spent more than $800,000 for such items as food, beverages and flowers. Instead of itemizing the spending, the campaign routinely reports lump sums as much as $63,000 as simply "Mansion Fund." Since 2001, the campaign reported 145 “Mansion Fund” expenditures totaling more than $816,000, according to TPJ.
Ed. note: For those who are interested, the Bill White campaign will be hosting an ethics-filled, anti-lobbyist ball next Thursday at the same time of Perry's fundraiser. If you're here in Austin, sign-up online -- it will be Thursday, September 2, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at the same campaign headquarters where the chicken suit first debuted.
Bill White called for gubernatorial term limits today, raising attention to the fact that Rick Perry -- who is already the longest-serving governor in Texas history -- has been governor for ten years, and asking voters for another four. From their press release:
"Texas needs term limits to avoid excessive centralization of power in Austin and the use of power by special interests to entrench a governor in office," said Bill White, in supporting a referendum on whether to limit the governor to two four-year terms.
"Perry's use of board appointees as a political fundraising machine demonstrates the need for term limits, which are in effect for the governors of 37 out of 50 states," said White.
"The public deserves to know from Rick Perry, not some spokesperson, whether he supports or opposes term limits for governor, and whether he supports letting voters decide," said White.
The issue of term limits gets to the central distinction Bill White is making between himself and Rick Perry -- that Rick Perry is in it for himself, while Bill White is in it for Texas. To emphasize that point, White released a television ad yesterday that highlights Rick Perry's lobbyist fundraiser on Thursday. Of the 30 members of the steering committee, 29 are lobbyists, including many former staff. Here's the ad:
Seven chiefs of staff later, what have we learned?
Far as we can tell, five have been registered as lobbyists, as White stated. Three of those — McKinney, Toomey and Sullivan — were lobbyists before Perry hired them as chief of staff.
Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed.
Files on one shared computer network drive were saved, but unless Craddick specifically requested them, computer hard drives and electronic records associated with individual employees were deleted, officials said.
Craddick left the speaker's office on Jan. 13, returning to the state House as a rank-and-file member without a vast staff and without the sweeping power the presiding officer wields.
The computers were removed from the speaker's office to be wiped clean at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, said Anne Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Texas Legislative Council. Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was sworn in as speaker at noon the following day.
But before he gave up the gavel to Straus, the council, which oversees computer issues for the Legislature, let Craddick take what he wanted and deleted everything else, officials told The Associated Press. Billingsley said the computers from Craddick's office were recycled and that Straus got his own computer systems that did not have the old files on them.
Government watchdogs who complain would argue that files on a government computer belong to the state of Texas, and therefore should not be wiped.
Deleting files from individual employees in the legislature is standard procedure, but the rules on the files of the representatives themselves seems more fuzzy. Not only was Tom Craddick just a member, but he was the speaker of the entire House presiding over multiple contentious terms. So, this could be a story to watch.
Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin wants a quick ruling from the state Personnel Board she has asked to investigate her firing of the state's public safety commissioner, her lawyer said Wednesday. [...]
The matter already is under investigation by the state Legislature, which was scheduled to report its findings on October 31 -- days before the November 4 election. But Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said the Personnel Board could resolve the matter faster "if they want to jump on it."
"I think I'd rather have them act quickly and get the real facts out there in the open," he said.
Sour grapes are funny things. After the amazing victory by Juan Garcia over Republican Gene Seaman in the Coastal Bend in 2006, local republican officials just cannot come to grips with reality. Repeatedly, the Nueces County GOP apparatus continues to swing wildly into the air, hitting nothing and looking like fools.
First, since his win, four frivolous ethics complaints againt Rep. Garcia filed by local GOP officials have been dismissed by the Ethics Commission.
Second, former Nueces County Republican Chair Joel Yowell filed a massive public information request of Rep. Garcia’s State Representative office, including every email, phone call and employee document ever generated by the office. After Garcia's staff was forced to burn dozens of taxpayer-paid man-hours complying with his request, Yowell sent the records back unopened, simply changing his mind. Yowell gave no reason for his sudden change of heart. I suspect he is afraid of what happens if we peer into his house.
Third, in an even more bizarre episode, Republican staffer and campaign consultant, Todd Gallaher, got caught using state computers for campaign work, created an email account designed to look like it was from Rep. Garcia and tried to blackmail a sitting Coastal Bend Sheriff. Later, he lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
This week, Mike Bertuzzi, current Nueces County Republican Chair, sent out 20,000 mailers attacking Rep. Juan Garcia for not returning campaign contributions given by Corpus Christi businessman Mauricio Celis. Not surprisingly, Bertuzzi, the ring leader of this bumbling "gang that couldn't shoot straight", didn't bother to check his facts.
Last January, Garcia donated the Celis money to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves severly injured American service personnel from South Texas.
The “Center for the Intrepid” serves military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties.
Here is clip of Rep. Garcia addressing the local media on the false mailers:
Sen. Bob Deuell's Chief of Staff, Todd Gallaher, was caught redhanded doing some really stupid and potentially illegal things this week. It is being reported that Gallaher used state computers for campaign work, impersonated a state representative via email, tried to blackmail a sitting Sheriff and lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
Todd Gallaher had been on leave from Republican state Sen. Bob Deuell's office since last month, when he used an e-mail address that looked like it belonged to a Democratic lawmaker to send out embarrassing photos of a South Texas sheriff up for re-election.
As recently as Thursday night, however, he was back in Dr. Deuell's Capitol office, apparently identifying himself as a Dallas Morning News reporter in a phone call with a California ethics watchdog.
I am curious whether being "on leave" from the Senator's office was because he did something wrong or it is just code for taking time off to work on the Sheriff election.
1. Don't use state computers for state work - it's not what the taxpayers would want and it's illegal.
2. If you are going to impersonate someone, don't have a lame excuse when you are caught.
Dr. Deuell of Greenville said Mr. Gallaher told him he wasn't impersonating [State Representative] Garcia when he sent out the photos, which Sheriff Gilliam says were taken at a raucous New Year's Eve police party in 1989. Dr. Deuell, who has apologized profusely for his staffer's actions, said Mr. Gallaher told him the personal e-mail address stands for "Republican Jaun Garcia," a super hero-like caricature Mr. Gallaher created long before Mr. Garcia ever took office.
I don' t know what is worse: the sorry excuse for an excuse or that Sen. Deuell seems to believes him. And it continues:
If the e-mail address on the South Texas sheriff photos was truly just a coincidence, Rep. Garcia said, it's one that's "beyond comprehension." His office has asked for evidence that Mr. Gallaher has used the alter ego before – a request that Dr. Deuell said has produced cartoon sketches from the 1990s. In those sketches, Mr. Gallaher points out, "Juan" is spelled "Jaun," a sign that the character is in no way linked to Mr. Garcia. In the e-mail address, however, it was spelled "juan."
Also, it appears that Gallaher was on the payroll of the Sheriff's opponent who won the race. That candidate "has paid $11,000 since July 2007 to an Austin-based consultant – one that lists Mr. Gallaher's post office box as its address."
The outgoing Sheriff, Gilliam, is asking the Attorney General to open an investigation on Gallaher. "He says before the photos were released, he received two e-mails from a different address, telling him to "back off" of his opponent or risk public embarrassment. Those e-mails both traced back to the Dr. Deuell's office, Sheriff Gilliam said."
Of course, this isn't the first of Gallaher's indiscretions. "He was deeply involved in a messy state tug-of-war over privatizing the state's specialty license plate business in 2006 – drawing allegations of meddling from transportation department officials."
I wonder who is going to be dumb enough to hire this kid. Free advice to Republicans: stay away from him.
(Here's another candidate diary for discussion. - promoted by BOR)
Why hasn't Nelda Spears Filed her Personal Financial Statements?
On Tuesday, my campaign manager, Elliott McFadden, filed a complaint with the County Attorney against Nelda Spears for failing to file her Personal Financial Statements with the County Clerk in the years 2001, 2002, and 2003.
These reports include information about all sources of income, debt, and boards elected officials serve on. They are required to be filed every year by elected officials to ensure there are no conflicts of interest. Failure to file is a Class B misdemeanor. The Spears campaign response in the Austin Chronicle has been to hide behind the statute of limitations on these offenses.
This is absurd! Elected officials should be held to a higher standard than being able to get away with breaking the law because time has run out. Instead of arguing over which law Ms. Spear broke, she should just file the missing information.
As a leader on ethics reform in the State Legislature, I believe in full discloure to ensure there are no secret deals and no hidden conflicts of interest. I filed my Personal Financial Statements each year as a legislator which are available to view at the Texas Ethics Commission.
Though I am not required by law to do so, I am disclosing on my website my client list since I retired from the Legislature. I encourage Ms. Spears to file these missing reports prompting so that public can be assured there is no conflict of interest.
I'm Glen Maxey and I'm running as a Democrat for Travis County Tax Assessor Collector.
So I'm just watching the House while in session on my TV. While there is a break in the action, Rep. Tony Goolsby is recognized for an announcement.
"Members, this is National Car Care Week. "
He goes on to say that certified mechanics are doing car maintenance inspections for free at some location near the Capitol (which I didn't catch). So, here he is on the floor telling the members how to get yet another freebie give away.
However, it was the final part of the announcement that grated on my ethics prone ears:
"So, have your staff, when they get a break, take your car over there."
As far as I recall, legislative staffers are state employees. Taking your car for maintenance, even if a part of an organized effort by some lobby group, is probably legal. However, any state employee doing personal work for a member is over the line and not legal.
Anyone want to go see whose cars show up and just who might be driving them?
Toxic Ethics: Coats Reaffirms Polluter's Agenda
Dallas Mayoral Candidate and TXI Board Member Sam
Coats Refuses to Cut Ties To DFW's Largest Industrial Air Polluter - Even as the Company Fights City Hall
(Dallas)-A local clean air group is deriding Dallas mayoral candidate Sam Coats decision not to quit his membership on the board of cement giant TXI, or even pledge to distance himself from the company's campaign to defeat air quality measures backed by current Mayor Laura Miller and Dallas City Hall.
"He doesn't seem to understand the meaning of conflict-of-interest," said Jim Schermbeck, staff organizer of DFW-based Downwinders At Risk."
Downwinders, the 12-year old group that has made the nation's largest concentration of cement plants in Midlothian its central focus, met privately with Coats after his membership on TXI's board was revealed earlier in the month. This is the first time the group has spoken out about the results of that meeting, because, representatives say, they wanted to give Coats an opportunity to differentiate himself from the company's policies that put it at odds with cleaner air in DFW.
Robert Ricketts' latest op-ed is posted at Blue 19th. Here's an excerpt:
Congress has lost its way. We can’t point our finger to an exact day, or year, that this happened. Perhaps it was never sure where it wanted to go. But today, we know for certain that it is lost.
How do we know? Look at what our Representatives do. An inordinate amount of the typical Representative’s time is spent asking people for money … wooing people who have a stake in the legislative process. They can say what they want, but the bottom line is that the principle activity in Congress today is to seek contributions from companies, industries, and wealthy individuals who look to government, rather than the marketplace, as their primary source of profit.
Of course, some of our representatives are more brazen than others in “marketing” their votes. One such member is Randy Neugebauer. In 2004, he took money from Tom Delay, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, and others. Unlike virtually every other member of Congress who received money from these tainted sources, Mr. Neugebauer refuses to give the money back. He feels no shame in being associated with men such as these. After all, he kept his end of the bargain – he voted the way they wanted him to. Why shouldn’t he keep the money?
